Eleven Minutes
by sarcasticfreak
Summary: Dan can barely believe she's here. Shouldn't she be celebrating? Shouldn't she be packing? Shouldn't she be anywhere but here?


**I'm not sure if this will make sense in the mind of anyone's but my own but I had a good time writing this anyway. It's set roughly at the end or perhaps just after the end of Season 4. Quite**

**sure there aren't any spoilers; it's just an interaction between Blair and Dan which will probably never happen.**

**I don't own these characters or the places whence they came.**

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><p><strong>. .<strong>

The night Blair Waldorf appears at Dan Humphrey's loft at 11:53pm falls on the tail end of a Wednesday. Her dark curls glow in the soft light of Brooklyn's most visited hallway. She's paired a pale pink

dress with a slight frown and her skin is cream and roses.

To Dan Humphrey's eyes, she is perfection.

"You left without saying goodbye," she says. She traces the planes of Dan's face with her eyes and her gaze softens as it meets his. Dan can barely believe she's here. Shouldn't she be celebrating?

Shouldn't she be packing? _Shouldn't she be anywhere but here?_

She looks like she wants to step closer to him and a million things fly through Dan's mind. He wants to tell her how he feels – how he's felt ever since that apocalyptic kiss in her foyer. He wants to

shake her and make her understand that he'll never be a prince. He wants her to know that he'll always be Dan Humphrey and that he wishes that were enough. He wants her to be happy.

"I have an early class." It's a lousy excuse and more than a little bit of a lie but it sounds better to Dan than the truth. _I couldn't watch you with him._

How had it come to this? When had it started? At what point had Blair Waldorf become just Blair to him? Distant memories of a long forgotten hallway and the sad eyes of a girl in a green

dress flood Dan's mind. He longs to turn back time and tell his seventeen year old self that he should suppress his dragon slaying and princess saving instincts. That he should go home to

Brooklyn – far, far away from the Upper East Side – and play Scrabble instead. That he should forget about the flighty blonde that dazzles his eyes because she'll never be the one for him.

That he ends up alone in Brooklyn with a plate of half-eaten pierogies and a wounded heart anyway. That he falls for Blair Cornelia Waldorf.

"I'm sorry," Blair whispers and the words sound almost comical in their inadequacy. "I should have told you sooner."

_Yes, you should have._ "I don't see why," Dan replies a little too coolly. He doesn't miss the way hurt fills her eyes but he figures it's easier to feign indifference than to dwell on the truth. "You

told me at the same time you told your family and friends. I should be honoured." He knows he sounds like a petulant child and he hadn't intended for the bitter edge in his voice but Dan was

tired of pretending like he didn't mind or care.

She knew. He knew she knew. He didn't know how or when or where she had figured it out but she wasn't stupid. Blair knew how he felt about her and now the pair were waltzing between

being 'just friends' and feeling as if they had something to hide. But they didn't. Or rather, she didn't. Dan had come to accept that the sideway glances and Blair's many exclamations of "We

are just friends!" that hadn't quite matched her eyes were nothing more than wishful thinking on his part. She didn't care for him that way and she had proven that tonight without doing

anything to him at all.

"Dan, I..." For someone who has every reason in the world to be happy, Blair looks forlorn. She was never one to be lost for words and for a moment, Dan falters. Maybe it wasn't all in his

head. Maybe she really did look at him and see a person beyond Cabbage Patch. Maybe his kisses had meant all the things to her that they had to him. Could it be? Did it matter?

"Dan, your friendship has meant a great deal to me." She doesn't even keep up a casual tone. There's a sort of gravity to her words and it melts away Dan's pretences too. Just because he

doesn't know what they are doesn't mean they're 'just friends'. "You...you made me remember what it means to be Blair Waldorf when I hadn't even known that I'd forgotten. I'm going to

miss you." She never willingly expresses such emotions. Not without good reason. Dan knows that this is it. It's now or never. Either he'll find the courage to put words to the feelings that are all too

clear or she'll walk away and he'll never get this moment back.

She doesn't walk away. He looks at her. She looks at him. She doesn't touch his cheek in a caring fashion and he doesn't utter a word he'd like to say. They don't smile and they don't kiss. He

doesn't hold her hand and she doesn't well up in tears. They simply look at each other and their eyes say the things that their lips wish to. The things that propriety forbids them to.

Its clichéd and hardly logical but it happens all the same.

They stare into each other's eyes for forty eight seconds – not an eternity, not an immeasurable amount of time – and not a word passes between them. Not when she finally

understands that who she wants isn't the person she's told the world she's with. Not when he feels the air change and realises that she finally sees. Not when she steps away and begins to

descend the stairs, away from the loft and away from him. Not even then.

The night Blair Waldorf appears at Dan Humphrey's loft at 11:53pm falls on the tail end of a Wednesday.

By 12:04am the next day, Dan Humphrey regrets letting her go.

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><p><strong>Okay...let me know what you think. I'm not sure even I know how I feel about the<strong>

**ending and I'd love to hear your thoughts. If you've gotten this far, I assume you've read all of **

**the above and so I thank you.**


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